Whatever happened to walking to school?

I thought my rants about school busing were over. After reading the Sept. 7 issue of The Wall Street Journal, page A21, however, I feel I have to pass it on. I quote: “...Those of us who remember using our own legs for transit now run the risk of sounding Abe Lincolnesque. Today, only about one in 10 kids walks to school....” How did we get to this point? How did we forget that it’s just a walk to school? Simple. We bought the line that good parenting is the same as over-parenting. That the more we could do for our children, the better. We forgot the joy of scuffing down the street when we were young, crunching leaves, picking up seeds and decided we’d do it all for our kids, independence be damned! Except independence is good. Children who walk to school are healthier, for obvious reasons. New studies suggest they may do better academically, too. “‘You can see the difference in the kids who walk or bike,’ says Jerry Flynn, principal of St. Thomas Aquinas, a Catholic school in Indianapolis that has been encouraging parents to stop driving their kids. ‘They’re bright, chatty, ready to go.’” And one day, they might even get to tell their own kids something more than: “When I was your age, I walked 10 feet to the SUV - and it was uphill both ways.” Fred Ungerer Highland Mills